Herbert Tobias

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Herbert Tobias (born December 14, 1924 in Dessau ; † August 17, 1982 in Hamburg ) was a German photographer who became known as a fashion photographer in the 1950s . His portrait studies, his Russian photographs from World War II and his homoerotic images of men are considered to be of particular artistic value .

Herbert Tobias' grave

Life

Herbert Tobias, son of a gunsmith in Dessau, was self-taught and at the age of ten taught himself photography and later also developing. He actually wanted to become an actor, but his father's early death in 1936 prevented this. After working as a land surveyor in Höxter , Tobias was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1942 and sent to the Eastern Front , where the first significant photographs were taken. Shortly before the war, deserted him and fell on the Western Front in American captivity , from which he was dismissed late 1945th

After attending a drama school in Siegburg , he got an engagement at the touring theater Niedersachsen-Bühne . When he was in the Heidelberg area from 1948 , he met a civilian employee of the US Army and fell in love with him. It was during this time that he came out . In 1950 the two were denounced under Section 175 and the couple moved to Paris .

In the French capital, Tobias met the well-known German photographer Willy Maywald , for whom he worked as a retoucher and who opened up his first contacts in the fashion world. In 1953, Tobias' first work appeared in Vogue magazine . After he resisted a raid on the Paris gay scene in the same year , he was expelled from France and returned to Heidelberg. From October 1953 his first fashion photos appeared in German magazines and one month later he won first prize from a highly endowed cover picture competition of the Frankfurter Illustrierte Zeitung out of 18,000 senders .

After moving to Berlin , his first solo exhibition took place there in November 1954, which was praised by Friedrich Luft (" Tobias' black and white pictures have a thousand colors "). In Berlin he discovered Nico , who later became known as the singer of the American rock band Velvet Underground , and used her as a photo model .

Through publications in many renowned magazines, Herbert Tobias was a household name in the German fashion industry from 1956. His contacts in the world of fashion and film led to a large number of portraits over the next few years, including those of Hildegard Knef , Zarah Leander , Valeska Gert , Amanda Lear , Klaus Kinski , Tatjana Gsovsky , Jean-Pierre Ponnelle , Andreas Baader .

From around 1960 Tobias found it increasingly difficult to submit to the discipline of the fashion industry and significantly less work was done. In 1966 he turned back to acting and took on roles in both theater and film productions.

In 1969, after moving to Hamburg-Altona , he was only able to stay afloat thanks to financial support from his friends and a few commissions as a designer for record covers for the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft .

From 1972 his first works appeared in various gay magazines, especially in the magazine him applaus .

In 1981, highly regarded exhibitions of his work took place in Amsterdam and Berlin. This late recognition and the planning of an illustrated book prompted him to systematically peel off and label old negatives .

After falling seriously ill in February 1982, Herbert Tobias died on August 17th of that year as one of the first celebrities in Germany to die of AIDS . Tobias' resting place in the main cemetery Hamburg-Altona was declared a grave of honor by the Hamburg Senate in 2007 .

Tobias bequeathed his photographic estate to the Berlinische Galerie (State Museum for Modern Art, Photography and Architecture), which dedicated a large retrospective to his work from May to August 2008 with 200 exhibits. In 2009 it was also shown in the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg .

literature

Books and exhibition catalogs

  • Glances and desire: the photographer Herbert Tobias (1924–1982) , ed. v. Ulrich Domröse, Steidl, Göttingen 2008. ISBN 978-3-86521-605-2
  • Photographs from the Pali Meller Marcovicz Collection , Aachen 1996. ISBN 3-89086-813-4
  • Photographs 1950 - 1980 (catalog for the exhibition in the PhotoGalerie Volker Janssen on the 70th birthday of Herbert Tobias) , ed. v. Hans Eppendorfer, Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-925443-40-1
  • Images of longing. Photographs 1951 - 1960 , ed. v. Janos Frecot, Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-89479-055-5
  • Herbert Tobias Photographien , Stuttgart, 2nd edition 1987. ISBN 3-88059-285-3
  • The position of German literature in the eighties. The photographer Herbert Tobias, No. 18/19 , paperback, Verlag Vis-à-Vis 1984, ISBN 3924040176
  • From the new look to the petticoat. , Berlin 1984

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Bilder der Sehnsucht . See: Books and Exhibition Catalogs
  2. ↑ Herbert Tobias at Discogs (English) (design of record sleeves)
  3. ↑ Berlinische Galerie: Highlights of the collection: "The Berlin Party is over", 1961 ( Memento from June 17, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ http://www.herberttobias.com/ (website of the Berlinische Galerie zur Retrospective, Bonn 2008)
personal data
SURNAME Tobias, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Dessau
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1982
Place of death Hamburg